This is the End – dVerse Open Link Week 126

Here’s my latest entry into the dVerse Open Link – why not take a look at all of the other wonderful poems for the last time in 2013?

Here’s my perspective on the end of the year… run for your lives – or not!

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– This is the End –

Find the time and squeeze it in

Just one more thing before you go

‘Would you mind?’ and

‘Could you look into this?’

Yes, it’s the end of year rush

to get everything done.

Because the world will end

if the tiniest task is left unfinished

Hell will freeze over, all clocks will cease

If we’re not chained to our desks

Until the very bitter end or

until public transport is on its last legs.

Here’s the thing – it’s all a con

dictated by the start of a brand new year

(You do know that

not everywhere uses the

Gregorian calendar, don’t you?)

If you leave just a few jobs until 2014 –

the ones which aren’t urgent

in your own, sensible estimation –

All will be well.

I guarantee it.

Buccaneer – dVerse Poetics

This week’s dVerse Poetics is asking us to write about shoes.

I am a bit of a shoe-fetishist. Unfortunately, I don’t have those delicate, lady-like feet that suit any kind of shoe. Nor do I possess calves that will just disappear into this season’s knee high winter boots with ease. Much like my little-girl desire to be a prima ballerina (before I saw the light and realised that writing was the only way!), my dreams do not match the reality of muscly legs, and ankles that tend to puff up a little as soon as I get out of bed in the morning.

So, here’s my take on footwear. And dreams. Enjoy!

Please visit dVerse to read the other thoughts of my fellow poets!

– Buccaneer –

In my dreams
I stride across continents,
buckling swash
with a smile and a wink
for the ladies (and gents)
who I save from destruction,
and fates that paper
and pen cannot bear.
I take a moment
to polish my boots,
inhaling the leather
encasing my calves
like a second skin.
They are battle-scarred,
and the laces that
bind me from ankle to knee
are soiled with years
of pounding the lands.
They may be scuffed
and worn bare,
but when I ease them
over my stockinged feet,
one by one, slowly,
achingly, sensuously,
I adorn myself
with bravery, confidence,
and a suit of armour
that no metal may match.
They are my badge of honour.
They are me.

One Wild Song – Līgo Haībun Challenge

The Līgo Haibun Challenge is hosted by Ye Pirate and Ese.

This week we are invited to be innovative. Instead of completing our prose with a haiku, we can choose an alternative style of oh-so-brief poetry. I have selected the Cambodian pathya vat style – four lines of poetry where the second and third lines must rhyme.

This week is also prompt week, and i have chosen the Mexican proverb ‘It is not enough to know how to ride – you must also know how to fall’ as my inspiration.

Please do go and check out the other entries by visiting the co-hosts’ blogs and finding the InLinkz linky thing! There are some very talented writers out there…

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– One Wild Song –

The weather yesterday was what I told myself to be the winter version of the day of my dad’s funeral – blue skies, here and there the odd wisp of teased, cotton wool clouds, everywhere crisp and bright.

It was a fitting day for us all to gather for his memorial service. A man who loved colour in his clothing as well as in his art, he would have delighted in such a day to celebrate his life, his achievements, his work.

Throughout the service – a mixture of classical music, hymns, choral works, poetry and other readings – I kept on thinking that I wouldn’t have been surprised if the man himself had arrived, charging down the aisle in a puff of cigar smoke, rainbow-hued tie flailing. It was all so ‘him’. The stunning surroundings, the atmosphere, the sheer grandeur of it all, yet wrapped in an intimacy so tangible it could almost be touched and held close.

So many amazing sentiments were expressed. They were touching, even humorous at times, topped off by a huge round of applause fit to lift St Paul’s Cathedral from its foundations and expose the OBE Chapel to the world outside.

It could have been no better.

clapping of hands
stings in echoes
for life that flows
– sorrow no more

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